Fantasia
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film (WP), the third Disney animated feature film, after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio. Fantasia was reissued multiple times with its original footage and audio being deleted, modified, or restored in each version. RKO balked at the idea of distributing Fantasia, which it described as a "longhair musical", p. 161 so Fantasia was first released as a theatrical roadshow held in thirteen U.S. cities from November 13, 1940. While acclaimed by critics, it was unable to make a profit. Production costs were high, and leasing theatres and installing the Fantasound equipment for the roadshow presentations was expensive. The expected audience shrank when World War II (WP)cut off distribution to the European market. Fantasia began to make a profit from its $2.28 million budget after its return to theaters on December 17, 1969. "Re-Release Schedule" feature from The Fantasia Legacy DVD. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2000) The film was promoted with a psychedelic-styled advertising campaign,https://www.thekindland.com/culture/when-walt-disney-marketed-to-acid-heads-1577 and it became popular among teenagers and college students who reportedly appreciated it as a psychedelic experience (WP). Animator Ollie Johnston recalled that young people "thought we were on a trip when we made it... every time we'd go to talk to a school or something, they'd ask us what we were on." The release is also noted for the removal of four scenes from The Pastoral Symphony over racial stereotyping. At the time, before hippies had made their impact on consciousness, and in the more right wing segments of society today, the removal was controversial. Four shots were removed from The Pastoral Symphony. One depicted two characters in a racially unequal relationship; this would be progressive if depicting the inequality as a negative thing, but instead it was glossed over and played for humor benefitting the oppressor. A black centaurette called Sunflower was depicted polishing the hooves of a white centaurette (thus portraying shoeshining as a happy scene). A second scene with a centaurette named Otika appearing briefly during the procession scenes with Bacchus and his followers, was deemed stereotypical.Cohen, p. 69. According to Disney archivist David Smith, the sequence was aired uncut on television in 1963 before the edits were made for the film's 1969 theatrical reissue.Cohen, p. 201. Fantasia was issued on a regular basis, typically for exhibition in art houses in college towns, until the mid-1970s. A marketing memo shows the compensation for culture shock by way of derision that enabled straights to sweep the hippie movement to the side without ever having to deal with it directly: :“Don’t get uptight about the potential audience. These are nice, unwashed, pot-smoking citizens. They’re here for a trip. They’ll head for the first row seats, sit in the aisles, in the pit, and on top of each other, but down front. They’ll smoke pot and offer advice to Mickey Mouse.” - National General Theaters trade organization memo Links Concept Art by Kay Nielsen for the Demon Chernabog in Walt Disney's 'Fantasia' https://t.co/mqCsNkxuhI Category:1940 animated films Category:1940 films Category:1940s American animated films Category:1940s dance films Category:1940s fantasy films Category:1940s musical films Category:American anthology films Category:American animated fantasy films Category:American fantasy films Category:American dance films Category:American films Category:American musical fantasy films Category:Animated musical films Category:Animated films about dinosaurs Category:Animated films set in prehistory Category:Ballet films Category:Dance animation Category:Demons in film Category:The Devil in fiction Category:English-language films Category:Fantasia (franchise) Category:Package films Category:Fantasy films Category:1960s in film Category:Counterculture of the 1960s Category:Psychedelic culture